Most projects require tools to facilitate their successful completion. The intent of this blog is to provide a tool for those of you who are taking on the project of improving your spiritual being. It is not my intent to spoon feed you information that you assimilate into your worldview without consideration. I suppose that’s ok, if that’s your style. But my desire is for people to find some of what I present to be thought provoking. Your spiritual project is just that, yours. As I see it, my job is to call attention to the scenery and signposts that were interesting to me as I stumbled, staggered and sometime sprinted along my spiritual path. My expectation is that there are enough people trudging a similar path on a similar spiritual adventure that my observations, errors and epiphanies could be of some help. Your job is to determine if that scenery and those signposts are interesting, beneficial or amusing to you. Perhaps you’ve already decided.

Nevertheless, as I continue down my path I sometimes notice a maze of dogma that tends to discourage my thinking and a lot of drama that can obscure my reasoning. A certain amount of dogma is necessary in order to establish a fundamental understanding of doctrine. But a steady diet of dogma without a smattering of question and doubt makes for shallow belief. Its hard to overcome doubts that you’ve never had.

Likewise, religious beliefs and spiritual matters are closely tied to a person’s emotions. I do not believe you can have a spiritual experience without feeling it emotionally. Still, reacting to raw emotions without applying sound reason can lead to poor decisions. So, even though I recognize dogma and drama as integral and important parts of the religious / spiritual experience, I will try to keep dogma and drama to a minimum in the posts of this blog.

You are a spiritual being. Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, your being is far more than the sum total of your material make-up. One of the things that should be considered is that the majority of belief systems that address the human spiritual nature agree that your spirit will outlast your body. That being the case, it only makes sense that we should do what we can to take good care of our spirit. I think the better condition the spirit is the more pleasant the transition away from our physical being should be. As I spill out the contents of my toolbox for you to rummage through you’ll find that what I am encouraging you to tool up for is a spiritual tune-up. There is plenty of information available elsewhere on how to care for every aspect of the physical being.

My belief is that the body and spirit form the being. The body is an extremely important component in our current stage of existence. I am taking the liberty of assuming that anyone reading this blog is among the living. Information sensed in the body informs the spirit and information gained in the spirit can inform the body. But for most of us in the western culture, our bodies have been the primary focal point of our attention. So, my thrust will be to encourage you to direct some of your energy and attention to being as concerned with your spiritual well being as with your physical well being.

My journey thus far has been pretty circuitous. It would not surprise me to learn that yours is too. Such is the nature of spiritual growth. But as I carry on with my blog I will try to be somewhat linear in the story I tell. I have no delusions that my perspectives are somehow totally new and untold. I have no credentials alluding to my impressive understanding. I am neither a preacher, pastor, prophet, PhD, nor professor. I’m just a guy with a story. My latest discoveries may be old news to you. Maybe, maybe not. But if my observations and ideas can prove helpful to one other person along the road to spiritual growth, I’m good with that.